Interesting. I read this right after "Professor Snape's Address". You provide such a wonderful insight into my favorite villain's mind! "Until the ground on which...by ghosts of the past" was a good piece. Maybe your next writing will be about why Snape is so cruel during Occulmency?

Reviewer: Wendelin

Date: 2005-03-04

Reviewid: 115498

Chapter: 1

This was... amazing.

I don't know, that doesn't sound right. But then, I don't have the gift for words that you obviously do.

What I liked best about this is the most unusual take on who Snape is. Fanon loves to portray him as dark and angsty and brooding... whereas you've managed to make canon fit better than ever fit a Snape who is simply driven by things other than what we expect, a Snape who feels and thinks and dreams like a normal person except for that one quirk - which explains all his different-ness in canon. And, oh joy of joys, you've imaparted a humour to Snape's personality that fits him like a glove -

"He sometimes wished he could live in a world miraculously devoid of people, and, coming to think of it, of animals too, as he did not care for them either - though he was willing to make an exception for cats, who were clever and didnít trouble one."

No wonder he gets along with McGonagall so well.

Thank you for sharing this. I can think of nothing else to say except that *I'm* in the middle of a Snape story now, and I've just realised I've been portraying the man as fanon has always portrayed him. I think I will take a few pointers from your Snape, even if mine is quite a bit darker and a little more lost than yours.

Did I thank you yet for writing this?

Reviewer: Seaspray

Date: 2005-02-19

Reviewid: 114362

Chapter: 1

This is good- very bitter and sarcastic in tone, just like Snape. One part I particularly loved<He was the one metrical foot that could not be made to fit, consisting as it did of the same elements as the others, but in the opposite sequence. And he had apparently reached the limits of what poetic licence Dumbledore would allow.>I really liked this analogy- I can just imagine Hogwarts as a poem or a song composed by Dumbledore. And again a very Severus thing to say, intelligent, cynical and tragic in it's own way.One thing that did not seem to work so well was the passage about the Dark Mark at the end. Somehow my focus wasn't drawn to it the way I felt it ought to be- perhaps it was the preceding sentence "Just as he was about to take a last puff from what was left of the cigar..."- somehow it seemed to me to take the edge of what should have been a dramamtic event. It seemed to make the last couple of passages sound a bit clunky.Other than that I thought this was a very insightful fic, and very well written. Well done.

Reviewer: Adrienne

Date: 2004-11-20

Reviewid: 105361

Chapter: 1

Not in the least romantic, nor polarized as a complete villian either. Thank you. Not a usual take on Snape, and well-done too. I don't think I've ever seen him smoke before either, an interesting touch.

Reviewer: Aaran St Vines

Date: 2004-11-19

Reviewid: 105285

Chapter: 1

An excellent story and excellent writing are not necessarily one in the same. This short is both.

I particularly liked the rhyming comparisons. The lines, "...He was the one trochee in the otherwise perfectly composed iambic pentameter that comprised the Headmaster and his four Heads of Houses...." and "...he had apparently reached the limits of what poetic licence Dumbledore would allow...." are exquisite.

If I ever grow up I want to write like this. Well done.

Reviewer: Felina Black

Date: 2004-11-19

Reviewid: 105274

Chapter: 1

A very intriguing insight into our favorite Potions Master's mind and motivations. Your writing style is very lyrical and flowing, making it very entertaining to read. I've always assumed Snape went off in a fit of rage after Dumbledore sided with Black (and perhaps he did, initially), but your presentation of the more contemplative said of Snape is completely believable. Well done.

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